Mo’ money no problems

A wise man once said, “The more money you make, the more problems you get”:

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Sometimes we just can’t be told, though. And it’s certainly not a sentiment we agreed with after the last round of Europa League matches. We’ll be keeping an eye out for tonight’s Spurs vs. Benfica game, and here’s why…

An eight-strong rabble of PrettyGreeners made their way to White Hart Lane recently, as mighty Tottenham Hotspur lined up against FC Dnipro, of Ukraine. The entourage consisted of several Spurs fans, a few hiding their West Ham, Chelsea and Arsenal shirts, and one who wasn’t sure she liked football, let alone the ‘North London Cockerels’. She was delighted with her full kit-out in team gear, eh Claire? (no prizes for picking her out of the photo)

Like a scene from Green Street (it wasn’t exactly the terraces of old Millwall), we paraded down Tottenham High Road, arriving at the ground just in time for a few pre-match refreshments and a flutter before the big match kicked off.

The FC Dnipro line-up seemed to put some confusion amongst the ranks of those waging their hard earned fivers, with the first two to the betting desk selecting goal scorers that weren’t actually on the starting team sheet for the day, and may or may not have existed in real life.

Leigh: 3-1 to Tottenham and FC Dnipro to score first through Zozulya [£3 @ 150-1 odds]

The first half was, in all honesty, one of the dullest halves witnessed by the Lillywhite faithful in a good long while. FC Dnipro players, a goal up from the first leg, were content with falling to the ground holding their face given any chance. It wasn’t fun.

Second half, renewed confidence. This is it, this is our chance to sh….GOAL FC DNIPRO. Seriously? One minute into the second half? Before our lovely [insert favourite drink here] had settled in our stomachs. “Who scored though?”, came the whispers. “Was it our guy?” Dnipro had scored and we weren’t going to discover who put it in the net until we got out back into the world of 3G.

55 minutes – goal to Spurs and we’re back in it.
61 minutes – RED CARD DNIPRO. It’s on and they’re down to 10 men.
64 minutes – goal Spurs and we’re 2-1 up. We believe.
68 minutes – goal. COOOME ON YOUUU SPURRRRRS rings through the terraces. 3-1 up. That’s enough to settle the tie.
Final score. 3-1 to Spurs with a Dnipro scorer. Who was it? The fingernails cover the floor of the home terraces…

A smug trip to Ladbrokes at final whistle confirmed Roman Zozulya as first goalscorer, Leigh had ‘earned’ £453 from a £3 stake whilst James collected his tidy sum. “We were waiting for you to come back” said the sheepish Ladbrokes assistant.

All in all, a great result in the Europa league. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close eye on tonight’s match at the Lane in the next round. And we might just find £3 pocket money lying around to take on a trip to the betting shop…